The worldwide mobile phone market experienced an unusual downturn in the normally robust fourth quarter of 2008 (4Q08). According to IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped a total of 289.0 million units, 12.6% lower than the 330.8 million units shipped during 4Q07. For the full year 2008, vendors shipped a total of 1.18 billion units worldwide, 3.5% greater than the 1.14 billion units shipped during 2007.

”The fourth quarter was the perfect storm of factors to produce this result,” said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team. ”A combination of weak end-user demand, currency volatility, and limited credit availability prevented the market from experiencing the usual seasonal increase in shipments. We expect the first half of 2009 to be very challenging as vendors and distributors grapple with clearing inventory. Should these conditions persist, the mobile phone market may not recover until later this year, and possibly not until 2010.”

If there was one highlight in 2008 it was that the converged mobile devices segment (commonly referred to as smartphones) grew 22.5% over 2007, clearly outpacing the rest of the industry.